BIOGRAPHIE
Stephanie Winker – Flute (Prof. Musikhochschule Frankfurt)
Christian Wetzel - Oboe (Prof. Musikhochschule Köln)
Ulf-Guido Schäfer - Clarinet (NDR Radiophilharmonie, Hannover)
Sibylle Mahni - Horn (Prof. Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin)
Volker Tessmann - Bassoon (Prof. Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin)
The Ma’alot Quintet, founded in 1986, is one of the world’s leading chamber music ensembles. International acclaim came through winning first prizes in four renowned chamber music competitions. The winning of the 1989 ARD Munich Competition promoted international concert tours, radio broadcasts and invitations to many important music festivals. The Quintet has played all over the world, tours include the USA, South East Asia, South America.
The ensemble’s repertoire embraces music from the classical period to the Avantgarde. The unique and wonderful arrangements of the ensemble’s clarinet player Ulf-Guido Schäfer are perfectly written for the quintet and can be heard on CD. Ma’alot’s long term collaboration with the eminent recording label “Dabringhaus & Grimm“ (MDG), has led to numerous prestigious award winning recordings including two “Echo-Klassik“ prizes in 2006 and 2010 for their Dvorak and Rossini CD’s.
The members of the quintet are principal solo players or professors in some of the world’s leading Orchestras and music Academies. They have also created dynamic relationships with contemporary composers in their search for new ideas and passion to realize modern music. Artists with whom they have had close artistic relationships include the composer Detlef Glanert, the actor Dominique Horwitz, the Tenor Christoph Pregardien, and the pianist Markus Becker, among others.
Since 2011 the Ma’alot Quintet has it’s own chamber music festival combining interesting and musically all encompassing programs, and hosting artists from all over the world. The quintet have worked closely together with, and been supported financially by, institutions such as the “Kunststiftung NRW“ and the “Deutschlandfunk (DLF)“, who have hi-lighted Ma’alot Quintet as one of the most important chamber music ensembles of the present day.
